I find all this pension business a nightmare! I have taken over the bookkeeping for a company whose last bookkeeper seems to have left the planet.
They have one employee is who is eligible for a pension (doesn't want it but has to be enrolled anyway before un-enrolling)
So it's all been set up with Nest - by set up I mean they have signed up with Nest but no employee details have yet been set up.
I am confused as to what has to be done when. The staging date is the 1st February 2016 so when do I need to enrol the employee into Nest by? I assume it's just before the staging date and then then employee has 30 days in which he can un-enrole - is this right?
Thanks in advance for any help on this, I find the Nest website has too much information and yet no real information - I have spent hours reading through all the info and yet still can't get the answers to my basic important questions.
You may be better off looking on The Pension Regulator's website, as this gives all the generic information about auto-enrolment - they also have been having regular webinars.
Is the employer utilising postponement? I'm assuming probably not from what you have said, in which case the employee will be automatically enrolled following the AE pay period that the staging date falls into. This will partly depend on what payroll software you are using - I use BrightPay and tell it what my pay period is for AE, so for me with an end of month pay date, 1 Feb staging would be assessed & enrolled on 29 Feb pay date. I seem to recall Georgie saying that Sage uses tax months as the pay periods for AE, so in that case 1 Feb staging would be assessed and enrolled on 31 Jan pay date.
An employee has 1 month to opt out (with full refund of any contributions) from when the pension info is provided to them. I don't use Nest, but I assume they manage this part of the process for you, as employers aren't allowed to be involved in the opt out processs. Usually, following the AE staging pay period, the data file upload occurs to give the pension provider all the employee details (enrolment) and then within a couple of days they send out, either by email or post, all the pension info, including the opt out information.
Your payroll provider will also probably have lots of AE information that you can access - certainly both BrightPay & Sage have been running webinars and I would expect all the others to have been doing the same.
I have been exactly where you are and I know it's over whelming but I will try and help as much as I can. Also as Helen suggests go on the Nest website and also look at The Pension Regulator site.
Your clients staging date is 1st February 2016. Which means when you run the payroll in January this employee will be automatically enrolled (assuming they are over 22 and earn above £10,000) . They are enrolled in January because the assessment is done "tax monthly"
You say the employer has registered with Nest.? Ask for their log in details and take a look at the site. It will have all the employer details.
Don't know what software you use but when you run the payroll in January this employee will be enrolled. The first thing you will need to do is to upload the "enrolling workers file" to Nest. Your software will create this file for you and basically it tells Nest who has been enrolled, age, sex, NI number etc.
Wait about an hour then you can log back into Nest and upland the "contribution file" This tells Nest how much the employer has contributed and how much the employee has contributed.
This employee only has 30 days to opt out, which he must do not you or the employer. When he is auto enrolled Nest will send him a welcome pack and in there it will give him the details on how to opt out. When he has done that you will get an email from Nest telling you that they have opted out and you process the refund back to him and the employer through the payroll.
I can say the Nest website and helpline is very good and also they are going to make the system of uploading the files to Nest much easier next year because it will be intergrated with the payroll software.
An insightful post certainly, and I'm sure you'll become an invaluable contributor.
We like to ask newbies a bit about themselves, eg what prof body you belong to, do you work for yourself or in a practice/ firm, are you a bookkeeper or accountant, what qualifications, how long in role, where up to in your studies-what exams passed/with what body/in midst of doing, where based, what you did before this role? That so of thing. Helps get to know you.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
Personally I think Nest ticks all the right boxes for micro employers. Easy to set up and no cost to the employer (at the time of writing)
I'm telling my clients that I'm set up with Nest, but it is their choice as to which pension provider they choose. I'm also saying that there's no additional charge for linking up Nest to the payroll, but there may be a nominal charge (max £25) for linking other pension providers if it isn't straightforward. The majority I'm sure will opt for Nest.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
I hope I'm wrong too.
